Ministers statements: working from home
Melissa HORNE (Williamstown – Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister for Health Infrastructure) (14:33): Working from home works. It works for families, it works for the economy and it works for our roads. Why is it good for our roads? Because when you are working from home you are not on those long commutes and you get much more time back in your day. Freeing up the roads from these commutes is also good for productivity. It means more efficient freight movements on that last mile to get our goods to market. It means more time for Victorian families to spend doing the things that they love and less on the things that they do not. It also means that you can duck down to the shop on your lunchbreak and get the things you need off the shopping list, delivered by hardworking truck drivers. These truck drivers stand to benefit too, getting their jobs done more efficiently and getting home to spend more time with their families. It is good for the family budget too. Fewer trips in the car means less money spent putting fuel in it, and this builds on the work that we have done to reduce the cost of keeping the car on the road, with free rego for thousands of apprentices, free L and P tests and discounts for safe drivers.
Of course we know there will always be people who rely on the network to get around, which is why we are continuing to deliver smoother and more reliable journeys with record investment in our roads. We are investing $976 million – almost $1 billion – this year in maintaining the roads Victorians rely on for all purposes, more than any other government has done before us. We will have crews out soon fixing roads across the state so people can get on with their day, get to school or sport or just get out and about after work. All of this is made possible with the Allan Labor government’s commitment to Victorians’ right to work from home wherever they are able to do so.